Taron Egerton

Sing

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  • Title: Sing
  • IMDb: link

Sing movie reviewIn a year without a true standout animated feature it seems fitting that Sing, an animated film as average as they come, closes out 2016. With a paper-thin plot to allow various characters multiple opportunities to perform popular songs and dance around, Illumination Entertainment offers up a film version of American Idol by offering one lucky contestant fame and fortune. Of course the fact that the person offering it can’t actually deliver does through a wrench into the plans of the would-be stars.

With an impressive cast including Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, Tori Kelly, Taron Egerton, and Nick Kroll, directors Christophe Lourdelet and Garth Jennings deliver a film that is neither more nor less than you would expect. When the story allows the characters to burst into song the movie works well enough. However, when there are stretches without musical performances, where the real-life troubles (family issues, boyfriend issues, daddy issues, money issues, and so on) of the individual performers get in the way of training for their big night, the movie stalls.

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Eddie the Eagle

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Eddie the Eagle
  • IMDb: link

Eddie the EagleIt’s fitting that at one point during Eddie the Eagle a sports announcer mentions the Jamaican bobsled team. Taking place during the same 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, the story of Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards (Taron Egerton) proves to be a fair companion piece to 1993’s Cool Runnings about outsiders making their mark and earning a place in a sport that wanted nothing to do with them.

In truth there aren’t that many sports stories. There’s the tale of the underdog making good (Rocky, Rudy, Major League), the comeback (Rocky III, Cinderella Man), a team coming together to overcome incredible odds (We Are Marshall, Hoosiers, Miracle), and an old athlete given a last chance at redemption (Rocky Balboa, The Wrestler). We like these stories because the characters are recognizable, their goals are understandable, and journeys are worth rooting for. Eddie the Eagle uses several of these themes in presenting Eddie’s story. The script by Sean Macaulay and Simon Kelton colors far less outside the lines than it’s protagonist ever did, but Edward’s story of a dreamer chasing the impossible simply works. It’s exactly the feel-good sports movie you expect it to be.

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Kingsman: The Secret Service

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Kingsman: The Secret Service
  • IMDb: link

Kingsman: The Secret ServiceKingsman: The Secret Service isn’t the first time director Matthew Vaughn has signed on to bring a Mark Millar comic to the big screen. Like Kick-Ass, Kingsman: The Secret Service centers on the life of a young punk who enters a world of violence, ridiculous adventures, and even more ridiculous villains. This time, however, the subject of spies rather than comic book heroes is both celebrated and lampooned.

Based on Millar’s comic The Secret Service, Taron Egerton stars as a working class kid from a bad neighborhood raised by a single mother after his father died in mysterious circumstances working for a secret organization of spies (and tailors?) known as Kingsman. Recruited by the same agent (Colin Firth) who recruited his father, Egsy spends most of the film proving himself against other candidates (Sophie Cookson, Edward Holcroft, Nicholas Banks, Tom Prior, Fiona Hampton) working to take the place of the latest Kingsman (Jack Davenport) who died investigating a link between a kidnapped professor (Mark Hamill) and an eccentric billionaire known as Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) who has some extreme ideas about lowering the population of the Earth.

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